I was able to put in a few hours this weekend to make some progress. I feel like I'm not making must progress as all of this cleaning, prepping and stripping takes a long time with not much to show for it at the end of the day but it should be worth it when it's all said and done.
First task was getting my new oil pump installed. As I mentioned in a previous post, I am switching out the current high volume pump for a standard volume one. The one I got is from Summit and came in the kit with my new oil pan. Seems like nice piece (new one on the left):
First I worked on getting the pickup tube installed... what a battle that was! My first method was using a wrench around the neck of the pickup and hammering on the wrench (with the top half of pump braced against a piece of wood). That got it about halfway in, but I couldn't go any further. I was destroying the flange on the tube as well. I finally brought it to a local shop and they were nice enough to help get setup in press to finish the job.
Just as a note: we stopped where we did (not all the way seated) because it was just such a tight fit. I also decided it did not need to be welded because the fit was so tight and because the pickup tube is also bolted to the pump.
Before I took my old pump off, I verified clearance to the bottom of the pan as about 0.376". (Spec is 0.375 - 0.500"):
My new one came in with quite a bit larger gap... 0.650". This is on the high end, which I was a bit surprised with since the pickup was supplied with the pan. I'm going to call Summit this week to verify I got the right piece as there is no way to bend it to adjust the clearance.
I also checked the crank scraper clearance just to make sure there was no interference. It was tough to get a good measurement, but with some creative Play-doh placement I'm pretty confident the clearance is around 0.375". It could be tighter, but again there is no real easy adjustment to make here. Having the scraper will be better than nothing and I am happy there was no interference.
Next I pressed a new seal in my front cover and that installed it with a new gasket. My previous bolts had a ton of RTV in the threads so I chased those with a tap to clean them up a bit. I don't see why RTV in the threads would be necessary since these are blind holes, so I installed mine dry. If someone has done differently though please let me know.
Old seal coming out:
Chasing the threads to get rid of the old RTV:
Can't put old nasty bolts back on!
Finally, I worked on some more paint prep. My goal was to keep my AL heads bare and unpainted, but I was worried I wouldn't be able to get them looking presentable. The previous owner has painted the block black and there was quite a bit of overspray:
I tried a bunch of different degreasers I had lying around, along with AL wheel cleaner and mineral spirits. The combo of the degreaser and a red scuff pad worked pretty well with some elbow grease. It left a "brushed AL" surface which I think is going to look pretty good.
Getting the block clean enough to have the tape stick and then masking everything off took forever! Very tedious work, but again, should be worth it. Almost ready to throw some primer on it. I know it's not the prettiest looking thing, but the plastic bags should get the job done!
Lastly, I also get the intake pieces cleaned up and almost ready for paint as well.
It seems like spring is finally here in New England (60 degrees today) so I'm hoping to sling some paint this week!
Thanks for following.